Windshield Wisdom #68: [Case Study] Leveraging Your Personal Brand

"I have been in contact with the practice manager at the dental clinic – cool opportunity. I can guarantee you other community banks, Hell – big banks, are not doing this. This is a stepping stone for us – I know I can build out a platform to get in front of other practices, other companies and help with these topics. They want to compensate me – I will have them direct that to a non-profit so we help the community in the process as well. This is the part of the job I love!"

There's a great story behind this message, and an even better best practice that hardly any of your competitors are taking advantage of. I wish I had done this back in my banking days...and that's what this week's Windshield Wisdom is all about.

Three Big Takeaways

1. You have expertise, experiences, and stories that your best prospects would love to hear.

2. The trick is, some of your best prospects don't even know you exist, and the rest would love an efficient way to tap into your expertise, experience, and stories when they need it most.

3. There is a tremendous opportunity available for the few bankers brave enough to consistently share their expertise, experience, and stories on social media. Writing articles or sharing videos has never been easier, and their impact on your ability to build your personal brand with your best prospects and customers has never been greater.

Full Transcript

So are you brave enough to try something that just, quite frankly, your competition isn't? My name is Matt Middendorp, the owner and founder of Sales Math, and this week's Windshield Wisdom is all about content. That's right. It's that one to two percent of bankers that are brave enough to create their own blog posts, their own videos, their own white papers, their own case studies, and put that information out there either through their banks blog or through social media and use that to attract prospects and customers. Like every good Windshield Wisdom, this comes from either one of my customers, or a prospect, or somebody I know in banking, and in this case it is somebody I've gotten to know very well over the last year or so, and it's very simple...this person wrote an article, they wrote a fantastic piece about leadership and it wasn't banking specific.

It wasn't product specific. It wasn't ghost written by somebody else. They put thoughts and ideas about leadership and small business together. Put this article out there, and lo and behold, they were contacted by a local business, a very prominent local business which is big enough to have its own internal employee meeting and they invited him to come in and speak based on that article, so a non-customer, who was taking information that he had written and thought it was so cool that they wanted him to come in and speak. Quite frankly, they wanted to pay him to come in. So how cool is that? How amazing is that that this person has chosen to take his ideas on leadership, on business, on professionalism, and share them on a consistent basis. Others have bought into his teachings and his ideas, much like you guys do when you watch these Windshield Wisdoms, and they are taking action and asking him to be a part of their business outside of normal banking activities as a result.

Now, double win here, right? Number one, are you telling me that that business, that significant business in their market, is not now a prospect, is not know somebody that he has a relationship with based on trust and the acknowledgement that he is an expert at what he does and possibly recognizing him as somebody they want to potentially get to know better and have influence over their business too, obviously. Right? They invited him in to speak and they believe he has value and if he has value and credibility as a professional, I'm willing to bet that he has credibility, and is seen as a great banker as well, as a result by them, just based on these articles that he's been putting out, and this one was the one that caused them to take action. The other thought that I have around this guys is one that, you know, yes, there are absolutely a prospect now, but they wanted to pay him to come in and speak and he said, I'll tell you what, anything that you think I'm worth, absolutely, but let's send that check out to charity, which is another whole layer of win, right?

Because not only does he get to have influence with this prominent business in their community, but he gets to then, with that prominent business, partner to have a bigger impact on the community through a nonprofit. How cool is that! All because again, he chose to share his beliefs and his expertise and do it in a thoughtful, well written, well presented way. That's crazy. That is absolutely crazy, but people do it all the time. The thing is most bankers don't do it. A lot of the bankers that I see do this guys, it's been ghost written by some copywriter that they're bank produced. The topics are all very, very banking related. It's SBA, it's treasury management topics and stuff like that, right, and that doesn't always have a ton of value with their customers. So this person has chosen to write about leadership, other people in this institution or writing about small business and being successful during the holidays, that are upcoming by the way, so delivering value back to their core customers.

These are things that their core customers are talking about. These are things that their self identified core customers are thinking about and wanting information about, and they are giving them information about things that are unrelated directly to their banking needs. Amazing guys. Fantastic. So my challenge for you is, are you one of those? Are you one of the one or two percent that is committed to taking the time to develop your own expertise, to share that expertise with others, whether through a bank blog, or LinkedIn, or Facebook or You Tube, however you want to get those ideas out. And it can be video. It can be written. Again, it could be case studies, it can be...there's a ton of different things that you can do, but are you brave enough? Guys? Are you brave enough to do it? And if you are, I hope that you will grab the reins. Take the bull by the horns, seize the day, pick your cliche for taking action and right now instead of engaging in another fruitless prospecting activity like cold calling or something like that, and take the time you would've spent on that, engaging your prospects through your expertise.

If you guys have any questions, comments, or thoughts of course about doing this, please do not hesitate to reach out. Obviously, if you want to get started, it's safe to say that I've maybe done a little bit of this. Hence the fact you're watching the video. Don't hesitate to call. You can reach me at 715.897.0879. You can shoot me an email, [email protected] On LinkedIn. I'm Matt Middendorp, You can find me there. Shoot me a message through linkedin if we're not connected. In the meantime, guys, go make sales. Be Happy. Be successful. Or, heck, be an expert and share that with the world. I'll talk to you soon.

Matt Middendorp is a nationally acclaimed speaker and sales coach with over 20 years of experience turning connections into customers and advocates. In 2013, Matt founded Sales Math, and debuted his “Formula for Success” sales training system to bankers across the country. From the beginning, Matt’s clients have experienced learning that is fun, meaningful, and makes a difference in the real world. Today, Matt’s core philosophies of “Learn Together, Do Together, Grow Together” are taught through in-person coaching, online as part of the Cool Bankers Academy, and by his leadership of the Cool Bankers Club Facebook Group. His clients are making their goals faster and easier based on the confidence and skills gained from learning a sales process tailored to ensure they aren’t “just another banker” in the communities they serve.

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